Shadow kept his distance from the blaze watching it carefully. After what Ava told him about what the dog had gone through, Caleb certainly understood his fear of fire.
Even though the fire helped light up the area, in the fading light of day, the shadows were everywhere.
Soon, the smoke became cloying. Caleb’s eyes watered. He covered his nose and mouth.
Ava waited for direction from Shadow.
The dog sniffed the air somehow discerning the scent above the smoke. He headed toward the woods that were in front of the lodge.
“Stay close,” Ava told her team as they moved toward the target location.
Caleb could feel the tension tightening between his shoulders as they entered the woods. “I don’t like this,” he whispered to Ava.
“I feel the same way.”
Shadow homed in on a particular tree. Caleb’s flashlight picked up the iridescent glint of wax down its trunk. “He’s been here.”
Shadow sniffed the base of the tree before sitting.
Ava eased next to him and glanced down. There, in the snow-covered ground, was another glob of wax holding something.
Using her gloved hand, Ava lifted the wax and studied it.
Caleb leaned over her shoulder. “What is that?”
“I can’t tell.” Ava shook her head. “We need to go back to the mine site. I want to be part of the search.”
“Why don’t Larabee, Grace, and I stay here and keep looking for other clues?” Novak suggested.
Ava shook her head. “There won’t be any. This was what Wax wanted us to find. “I’ll send the second chopper up with ERT agents to search the area. Let’s get back down the mountain.”
Once they reached the chopper, Ava loaded Shadow then the rest of the team piled in. As soon as they were airborne, she called Devlin and gave him the coordinates to the crime scene.
“So, a distraction and a clue. What is he trying to tell us?”
Ava held up the wax blob. “I don’t know.” There was too much wax to make out what the object was inside. “We’ll see you soon.” She ended the call and turned to Caleb. “Whatever he’s trying to make us understand, we’d better figure it out soon. Rachel’s life is on the line.”
The fear in her eyes rolled over him in waves. She’d witnessed firsthand the pain Wax inflicted on his victims. The thought of her friend going through that torment was too much.
Chapter Sixteen
The Bracelet in The Wax
“Anything?” Ava asked the second they were on the ground and spoke with Devlin.
Before he said the words, Ava saw the truth. They were still scrambling to understand Wax’s clues.
“Nothing yet, but we have agents everywhere. We’re slowly clearing inside the mine shaft. It’s still unstable but we’re searching for any hidden passages that might have been used for him to escape.”
“Thanks.” Ava stepped away with Caleb. “I can’t stand around and do nothing.” She turned her face up to the snow that had begun falling again. Another storm was moving into the area dropping the temperatures to well below freezing. At this time of the year, the weather could be brutal.
“Ava, you’re worn out. So is Shadow. Maybe we should go back to the command post and start analyzing the evidence for anything that might give us a clue. Maybe you should try and get some rest while you're there.”
Caleb was right, but everyone on the team was running on fumes. “I can’t sleep. Not knowing he has Rachel. I forgot to hand off the evidence we found at the fire to Devlin.”
She headed toward Devlin’s post with Caleb and Shadow.
“This is the latest clue from near the lodge. It’s impossible to make out what’s inside with all the wax.”
